(Photo from [Flame Guitars](https://flameguitars.co.uk/repair-of-a-broken-gibson-les-paul-neck/) for illustrative purposes only!)

Greetings from a guitar player/non-luthier, and a question: Years ago, i knocked my Gibson Les Paul off its stand and the headstock broke. It was held on by the plastic veneer, and the break was about where the break above was.

Freaked out, I took it to a highly in-demand, well-respected repairman. He assured me that it was a simple fix. and indeed it was: He just reglued/clamped, did minor finish touch-up and that was that. That repair held for at least 15 years (when I sold the guitar at an appropriately discounted price) and I imagine that it is still holding. The whole time I owned it I played it in standard tuning with 11s, and eventually sort of forgot it was repaired at all. Another respected repairman saw it once and admired the workmanship.

Today, when I watch headstock repair videos, it seems many get splines, even when the break resembles that of my LP all those years ago. As someone who prefers buying used guitars, I’ve seen a lot of Gibsons with repaired breaks (because of course, har har) but only within maybe the past decade have I noticed that splines are increasingly part of the equation.

How does a luthier decide when splines are needed? What’s the preferred material? Do you think other repairers today are doing splines when in some cases it’s overkill?

Are splines overused in headstock repairs?